It is the end of November and we all know what that means: it is time
for War. Yes, every year at
this time of year we are reminded that we are supposed to be at war. It is
called the War on Christmas and we are apparently all conscripted as foot
soldiers. The first shots of
this year’s battle have already been fired. The skirmish was fought over the
holiday season cups at Starbucks. A few Christians took offence because the
plain red and green cups being filled by the iconic café this year don’t have
any explicit Christmasy words or symbols on them. But we all recognize that
that is only the beginning and there will be many more fights to come. What
will be next? Will we have to take offence at someone who says Happy Holidays?
Will we need to be appalled by a lack of mangers in public squares? Where will
it end? I’ve got to say
that in this particular war, I am pretty much ready to declare myself a
conscientious objector. I’m not sure I wa…

I was reading the above news item from the church of Iceland and some of the online discussion around it today. The reactions that I was read mostly seemed to be from people who have serious theological objections to participation in same sex marriages. The tone of the comments was basically: "See, this is why we can't give an inch on same sex marriage. If we give an inch, they'll take a mile and take away our freedom of conscience to refuse."

It was making me think a lot about what I believe about freedom of conscience.

I really do believe in freedom of conscience. I believe that, when people struggle in good faith with the meaning of the Biblical text and come to a conviction about how they should act, we ought to do what we can to give them the freedom to live out their faith according to their conscience.

There are, of course, some limits to that. We couldn't possibly tolerate someone who sincerely…